Magnetic Island Activities

Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service maintain five walking trails on the island. A little over 20 km of track winds through Magnetic Island National Park allowing visitors to see a variety of flora and fauna, from the hoop pine to the introduced Koala Bears.

Nelly Bay to Arcadia - This track is 6 km long. It starts at the end of Mandalay Avenue (which runs northwest out of Nelly Bay) and passes through a small area of rainforest. The track then moves through Gustav Creek and rises to offer excellent views across both Nelly and Horseshoe Bay. The track continues to Arcadia. It is good for seeing birds early in the morning. Above Arcadia there is an excellent vantage and viewing point at Sphinx Lookout. A copy of Jo Wieneke's field guide to the Birds of Magnetic Island is in the library of the townhouse.

The Hawkins Point Trail offers stupendous views of Townsville and starts at Picnic Street in Picnic Bay.

The trail to the top of Mount Cook, which starts behind Nellie Bay, rewards walkers with a refreshing freshwater pool only
100 metres from the top.

Near Arthur Bay are 'The Forts' a series of concrete gun emplacements and observation posts which were built during World War II to protect Townsville in the event of a Japanese invasion. The  walk to the site begins at the Radical Bay turnoff and is 1.4 km long.

Picnic Bay to West Point - An 8 km walk from Picnic
Bay of about 2 and a half hours travels up the south west coast and offers excellent views of Cockle Bay, Nobby Head, Bolger Bay and Young Bay. The track, which starts near the Picnic Bay Golf Course, is a bush road which runs along the coast. This is probably the best place on the whole island to see the diversity of life in a tropical wetland mudflat. There are numerous wading birds from September to April and crabs dart across the low tide beaches, mud skippers
and mangrove snails abound.

Horseshoe Bay Lagoon - there is a short track about 700 metres long which leads from Horseshoe Bay to the Lagoon Environmental Park which is often frequented by a wide variety of birds including Brolga, Black-necked Stork, Nankeen Night-heron, Striated Heron and Eastern Reef Egret.